<p>A top EU diplomat warned Monday it was getting dangerously late to secure a post-Brexit trade deal as a week of crucial talks began in Brussels.</p>.<p>The clock is ticking towards December 31 when a post-Brexit transition phase ends and the UK and Europe will need a trade deal to govern ties -- or face economic chaos.</p>.<p>The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost are in Brussels in hopes of reaching an agreement after eight months of mostly fruitless talks.</p>.<p>"Let's see if there will be an agreement. We can't tell at this stage whether this will be by the end of this week, or whenever -- or at all," the senior envoy said.</p>.<p>"This is already getting extremely late," he told reporters on condition of anonymity.</p>.<p>With a late October deadline already blown, a deal is needed urgently to allow time for legal vetting, translations and ratification by the European Parliament, whose last scheduled meeting of the year is on December 16.</p>.<p>The diplomat warned that "creative solutions" would be needed if a deal was delivered too late. Any accord would require two to three weeks of legal work before a vote by MEPs.</p>.<p>"We work very hard to get a deal, but there is still quite a lot to do," said Frost as he arrived for a session of talks with Barnier.</p>
<p>A top EU diplomat warned Monday it was getting dangerously late to secure a post-Brexit trade deal as a week of crucial talks began in Brussels.</p>.<p>The clock is ticking towards December 31 when a post-Brexit transition phase ends and the UK and Europe will need a trade deal to govern ties -- or face economic chaos.</p>.<p>The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost are in Brussels in hopes of reaching an agreement after eight months of mostly fruitless talks.</p>.<p>"Let's see if there will be an agreement. We can't tell at this stage whether this will be by the end of this week, or whenever -- or at all," the senior envoy said.</p>.<p>"This is already getting extremely late," he told reporters on condition of anonymity.</p>.<p>With a late October deadline already blown, a deal is needed urgently to allow time for legal vetting, translations and ratification by the European Parliament, whose last scheduled meeting of the year is on December 16.</p>.<p>The diplomat warned that "creative solutions" would be needed if a deal was delivered too late. Any accord would require two to three weeks of legal work before a vote by MEPs.</p>.<p>"We work very hard to get a deal, but there is still quite a lot to do," said Frost as he arrived for a session of talks with Barnier.</p>